Bad relay connection

[Hdeedose]

Hello

so , I have a big problem with my antennas . Recently , I have launched my first rover on Mun and I have got 140 science . But I can only receive less than half the total of the science . So , I have also send my first ever relay satellite (i have started playing one week ago , that's why everything is new for me ) , but I have got a red connection betveen my rover and my relay , what's the problem ?

Here are pictures :

Here is my mun rover . He have 8 communotron 16 , 1 communotron 16 s and even 1 HG-5 High Gain Antenna .

Here is my relay station . It have 8 HG-5 High Gain Antenna .

Do you see the red line ? It connect my relay and my rover .

I don't understand the problem . If you have any answers , then answer me !

Thank you .

[Streetwind]

Your problem is that starter antennas are just that weak. You normally don't notice it, because most of your connections go to the ground-based tracking station dishes on Kerbin, which are orders of magnitude more powerful and dominate the pairing completely. But when you try to communicate from one ship to another, you'll quickly run into range limits. You can find infos on antenna combining and range calculations here: https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/CommNet

Your vessels have antenna powers of ~8,294,457 (the rover) and ~23,784,142 (the relay). By comparison, the basic tracking station in career mode has 2,000,000,000, the level 2 upgrade has 50,000,000,000, and the fully upgraded one (also when playing sandbox or science mode) has 250,000,000,000.

So, there are two solutions. One obvious one, and one less obvious one.

Solution 1, the obvious one: moar boosters antenna power! Ditch the communotron-16S unless you need it to maintain comms during launch (generally not required in most cases). It is good for having a small profile and being practically indestructible, but unfortunately doesn't combine at all with other antennas. Instead, mount better antennas. For example: even though the HG-5 is only partially combinable, each one of them is still better than seven communotron-16. If instead of one HG-5 and eight communotrons on the rover you had just two HG-5's, your antenna power would actually increase (very slightly). Bringing three or more would help a lot. Even better, though, would be the DTS-M1, which weighs less than a HG-5 while being four times as powerful. If you don't have it unlocked yet, welp, then HG-5's it'll have to be.

Solution 2, the less obvious one: fix your relay setup, you're doing it wrong  Think about it: you want your rover to be able to talk to Kerbin. But if your rover happens to be facing Kerbin, it already has a connection to Kerbin by default, because it can connect directly to the tracking station. So, why is your relay in Kerbin orbit? The only way your rover can see the relay is when it is looking at Kerbin, and then it will have the tracking station to connect to!

No, your relay should actually be in Mun orbit. This is the far superior choice for multiple reasons. Reason one, your rover might be able to see the relay while it cannot see Kerbin. If the relay however can see Kerbin at that time, the signal can bounce through the relay and let the rover talk and transmit science while Kerbin is below the horizon from its point of view. Reason two, the rover and the relay need much less antenna power to talk to each other at 100% signal strength, because the distance between them will be far smaller. That means you need to spam fewer antennas. Reason three, you leverage the huge power of your tracking station by letting it cover the large distance between Kerbin and the Mun. Whenever possible, you should have the tracking station field the largest single leg of the communication path, because it will be stronger than almost anything you can build. And the few things you can build that are stronger will require combining many, many of the best antennas into large arrays.

 

Edited December 16, 2019 by Streetwind

[VoidSquid]

As per your screenshot, your rover has a direct connection to the KSC, here's how a connection via relay antennas looks like, you see the additional icon in the middle of the five icons:

You can hover your mouse over the icons to see the way your signal travels.

[AHHans]

3 hours ago, Hdeedose said:

But I can only receive less than half the total of the science .

How much science you get out of an experiment doesn't depend on the quality of the radio connection at all. Even the weakest connection will give you the full transmittable science if it is good enough to connect at all - and your electricity doesn't run out, but that's another topic. Some experiments (e.g. crew- and eva- reports) will give 100% science when transmitted, others (e.g. surface samples, but also mystery goo observations and science jr. materials studies) give only a small fraction of the total science when transmitted and not recovered.

In your first screenshot you see that if you recover the mystery goo observation you get 40 science, and if you transmit it you'll get 16.8 science. That is a property of the mystery goo observation experiment, and will not improve with a better radio connection.

[Hdeedose]

Thanks , I will try that now !

I've tried . the rover is connected with the station but the quantity of science that I can send don't change . Here is a screenshot with the connection , the relay is the same as before .

Edited December 16, 2019 by Hdeedose

[Hdeedose]

Oh ok AAAans , I didn't have read your answer properly . Thank you to explain me .

 

(PS: The other answers were good too , thanks Steetwind and VoidSquid , you helped me a lot .)

[Streetwind]

The reason you see no change is because a.) the rover is still directly connected to the tracking station and will prioritize that link (the shortest possible path) over any relay; and b.) the answer that @AHHans gave you above. Some experiments simply will not transmit 100%, no matter what you do.